8 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Five days later, on July 20tli, a second expedition over the 

 same ground produced little besides the butterflies already men- 

 tioned, with Melitcea iMrthenie, and, near Villars, on the way 

 home after a very hot walk, Polyommatus damon (which curi- 

 ously enough had not yet put in an appearance lower down in 

 the Eaux-Thermales Valley at this date) and one or two fresh 

 Thecla acacia:. 



Four days earlier, opposite the Bath Establishment Hotel 

 {"auberge" would be a better name for it !), I encountered for 

 the first time at Digne Lihythea celtis, a single male of which, 

 after hovering over some wild clematis just out of net-reach, 

 flew up into the cherry trees and disappeared. But at the back 

 of La Collette next morning Mr. Warren secured another male, 

 and on the road that day we saw our first and last Satyrus 

 fidia. Most collecting days were devoted, however, to the 

 valleys of the Eaux-Thermales, and right in the river-bed, having 

 scrambled down from the road after a fine female P. alexanor, 

 we came upon what was evidently a favourite haunt of the 

 hitherto elusive Polyommatus admetus var. ripertii, for with 

 the males of P. meleager, now in all their glory, this was 

 here the commonest of "blues." Both males, and in lesser 

 numbers females, were flying in abundance over a dry, sandy 

 promontory at the edge of a wood-path, where also the fine 

 brilliant southern form of the female Chrysophanus dorilis fre- 

 quented the flowers of a golden daisy, Mr. Warren netting 

 one specimen almost of the ruddy copper-red of the male 

 C. hippothoe. Nor did his successes with the Chrysophanids end 

 here, for, as at Nyons, he was able to count among his spoils 

 male examples of C. alciphron var. gonlius, female ab. midas, 

 Lowe. C. virgaurece was hardly out, and I saw only an occasional 

 male before leaving on July 23rd. 



On the whole, P. alexanor was plentiful, and it was a great 

 pleasure to watch the females ovipositing on the young plants of 

 Seseli montanum practically wherever they grew, and on both 

 sides of the Bleone Ptiver. They would hover a moment over 

 an unoccupied stem, then settle, bowing the delicate filamentary 

 shoots to the ground, and deposit a single egg at the junction of 

 the leaf with the stem. On no occasion did I find two laid side 

 by side, or anywhere near to one another, and the females 

 seemed instinctively to discriminate plants already visited. About 

 a dozen ova I carried home at difi'erent dates, and when Mr. 

 Warren left for England on the 21st he took with him a 

 small colony, some already in the second instar, of which I had 

 small hopes, having been assured that a change of food-plant 

 would be fatal to them. Yet they took quite kindly to the 

 Amersham carrots; though all died from some unexplained cause 

 in the third instar, leaving the life-history of the species still to 

 be written and illustrated by a British authority ! The range 



